April 26, 2018

Cleary Gottlieb successfully represented several corporate entities of the Deutsche Post-DHL group in administrative litigation concerning the annual contribution to the operating costs of the ART, a compulsory contribution required under Italian law from companies managing “regulated infrastructures or services.”

The Deutsche Post-DHL applicants claimed that the ART had unlawfully requested them to pay the contributions at stake, on the ground that they operate in sectors, such as logistics and express courier, in which the ART does not have, and has never exercised in practice, any regulatory competence.

After the Constitutional Court in April 2017 rejected as groundless the question of constitutional legitimacy of the relevant law provision referred to it by the Piedmont Regional Administrative Court, in a judgment in which it provided guidance as to the correct interpretation of that provision, the Administrative Court delivered on March 29, 2018, a judgment annulling the ART decisions challenged by Deutsche Post-DHL.